A mechanical model of bacteriophage DNA ejection
Abstract
Single molecule experiments on bacteriophages show an exponential scaling for the dependence of mobility on the length of DNA within the capsid. It has been suggested that this could be due to the "capstan mechanism" – the exponential amplification of friction forces that result when a rope is wound around a cylinder as in a ship's capstan. Here we describe a desktop experiment that illustrates the effect. Though our model phage is a million times larger, it exhibits the same scaling observed in single molecule experiments.
Copyright and License
© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Acknowledgement
We wish to thank Prof. Sigurdur Thoroddsen (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) for helpful suggestions and the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University for loan of the video camera.
Files
1705.10678.pdf
Additional details
Identifiers
- Eprint ID
- 79065
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20170713-084238945
Related works
- Is new version of
- Discussion Paper: arXiv:1705.10678 (arXiv)
Dates
- Accepted
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2017-05-23Accepted
- Available
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2017-05-29Published online
- Available
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2017-06-13Version of record
Caltech Custom Metadata
- Caltech groups
- Division of Engineering and Applied Science (EAS)
- Publication Status
- Published